At a meeting in his workshop, unveiling the lift for the first time, he said: "This is a unique type of machine as far as I know. A full scale version is now needed."

According to Mr Weegenaar, the uprights were wrapped in a wood case and rolled forward, before being pulled into holes in the ground using pulleys and counter-weights.

But it is the stones resting on top of the uprights - the lintels - which really excite the father-of-two.

If it isn't this way, it must be another and we would continue to modify it until it worked

Nick Weegenaar

"The lintels were rolled in the wheel until they were above the uprights, and then lowered down.

"The wheel would have been on a track, with counterweights to act as ballast."

He points to sockets in the top of the uprights to back up this view and insists the counterweights would not have weighed as much as the lintels themselves.

Archaeologist and broadcaster Julian Richards, who has also seen the Litho Lift, said it was an "interesting idea".

"The principles all work - but was it too sophisticated for the people at the time? I would be very interested to see how it would scale up."

But Dave Batchelor, head of local authority, historic environment liaison, at English Heritage, raised more serious concerns.

"This level of infrastructure is very likely to have left some traces and none have yet been found."

The Stonehenge site is 5,000-years old

He also questioned whether the wheel would have been in use in England when the stones were raised.

Mr Weegenaar is not the first theorist to enter the ring - and he won't be the last.

In 2004, Gordon Pipes, of the Stonehengineers group, suggested that levers may have been used to move the giant stones.

The question may never be answered and this, in part, is what fascinates so many people about Stonehenge.

Mr Weegenaar is now keen to build a proper version of his invention - draft carpentry plans are in place - with a wheel some 12ft to 14ft in diameter, to prove his thesis.

"If it isn't this way, it must be another and we would continue to modify it until it worked," he said.

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